Sochiapam is a
Chinantec language
The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, ''Ethnologue'' lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec.Palancar, Enrique L. (2014) ...
of Mexico. It is most similar to
Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec
Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec is a Chinantecan language of Mexico, spoken in northern Oaxaca in the towns of San José Chiltepec, San Juan Bautista Tlacoatzintepec, San Pedro Alianza, Santiago Quetzalapa, and San Juan Zapotitlán. The ...
, with which it has 66% intelligibility (intelligibility in the reverse direction is 75%, presumably due to greater familiarity in that direction).
Sochiapam has seven
tones: high, mid, low, high falling, mid falling, mid rising, low rising.
Like other Chinantec and
Mazatec language
The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as the Sierra Mazateca, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, as well as in adjacent ...
s, Sochiapam Chinantec is noted for having
whistled speech
Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over l ...
(produced only by men, but understood by all). More unusually, it has also been reported to have a rare
marked absolutive case system.
Phonology
The following are sounds of Sochiapan Chinantec:
[Foris, David. (1973). Sochiapan Chinantec Syllable Structure. ''International Journal of American Linguistics, 39''(4), 232-235.]
:1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants
:2. /p, t, k/ tends to be slightly aspirated
:3. Alveolar and velar consonants are palatalised before the semivowel /j/
;Tones
References
* Foris, David Paul. 2000. ''A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec''. ''Studies in Chinantec languages'' 6. Dallas: SIL International and UT Arlington.
External links
* A whistled conversation i
Sochiapan Chinantec (SIL-Mexico)* A documentary on Sochiapam Chinantec Whistled Speec
(Whistles in the Mist)Sochiápam Chinantec Whistled Speech Collection of Mark Sicoli
at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
{{Oto-Manguean languages
Chinantec languages
Whistled languages